You likely already know how overcrowded and abusive the US prison system is, and you probably are also aware that the US has more people in prison than even China or Russia. Who profits in this booming business of keeping human beings in cages?

Friday May 17, 2013, 7:45 pm
Before CA began using out-of-state private rumor had it Gov. Arnie also had stock...but this whole policy move is linked to ALEC and actually costs the taxpayer more (besides often giving them our property for free). Here is a collection of the research showing that (forgive me for the length Dandelion):

http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/resource/research

Predatory Privatization
People for the American Way, 8/31/2012

This report examines how the push to privatize public services and assets "often reduces the quality of services, burdens taxpayers and threatens democratic government." Stories of destructive predatory privatization noted in the report include those of the selling of public parking meter revenues, privatizing prisons, privatizing public education, and even turning over toll roads to private corporations.
application/pdf iconPFAW_Predatory-Privatization.pdf
The Math of Immigration Detention
National Immigration Forum, 8/27/2012

This report describes how immigration detention continues to raise enormous fiscal concerns, and includes an examination of private prison companies involved in the immigration detention system. It concludes that the numbers behind immigration detention simply do not add up to sensible policy.
application/pdf iconMathofImmigrationDetention.pdf
Private Equity, Public Inequity
Food and Water Watch, 8/27/2012

This backgrounder brief explores ALEC's privatization agenda in a variety of sectors with a particular focus on what its corporate members stand to gain from increased privatization. It also provides summary highlights from In The Public Interest's forthcoming report, "Profiting from Public Dollars: How ALEC and its members promote privatization of government services and assets."
application/pdf icon0712 ALEC Backgrounder Brief.f.pdf
Dollars and Detainees: The Growth of For-Profit Detention
The Sentencing Project, 7/1/2012
Prison Privatization

Collateral Consequences of Interstate Transfer of Prisoners [PDF]
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, July, 2012
âIn addition to breaches in facility security, out-of-state private prisons create significant barriers to rehabilitation and humane conditions of care.â
Dollars and Detainees The Growth of For-Profit Detention, [PDF]
Sentencing Project, July, 2012
âBetween 2002-2010 [...] privately-held ICE and U.S. Marshals Service detainees increased by 206% and 322%, respectively. In contrast there was respective growth of 28% and 67% in the number of state and federal prisoners held in private facilities.â
Pitfalls and Promises The Real Risks to Residents and Taxpayers of Privatizing Prisons and Prison Services in Michigan, [PDF]
Michigan Corrections Organization, February, 2012
âTaxpayers want to save money. Private prisons want to make money. These are inherently opposite interests, since the only way for private prisons to make money is for the government to give it to them. The drive for growth can be counterproductive...â
Private Prisons: The Public's Problem, [PDF]
American Friends Service Committee, February, 2012
âBetween 2008 and 2010, Arizona overpaid for its private prisons by about $10 million. If the requested 2,000 medium security private prison beds are built, Arizona taxpayers can expect to waste at least $6 million on privatization every year.â
Too Good to be True Private Prisons in America, [PDF]
Sentencing Project, January, 2012
âFinally, private prison companiesâ dependence on ensuring a large prison population to maintain profits provides inappropriate incentives to lobby government officials for policies that will place more people in prison.â
Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies [PDF]
Justice Policy Institute, June, 2011
âWhile private prison companies may try to present themselves as just meeting existing "demand" for prison beds [...] they have worked hard over the past decade to create markets for their product.â
http://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/prison_privatization/

The movement towards the privatization of corrections in the United States is a result of the convergence of two factors: the unprecedented growth of the US prison population since 1970 and the emergence out of the Reagan era of a political environment favorable to free-market solutions. Since the first private prison facility was opened in 1984, the industry has grown rapidly; gross revenues exceeded $1 billion in 1997. This paper will examine the industry's growth in the US in recent decades, and its current scope. The evidence for and against claims that private prisons can realize gains in efficiency will be weighed, and implications of privatization for other public values including safety, justice, and legitimacy will be examined.

http://government.cce.cornell.edu/doc/html/PrisonsPrivatization.htm

One can anticipate that underlying assumptions regarding overhead costs will have significant implications for bottom-line estimations of costs and savings. As previously discussed, the assumptions made by Abt led to a finding of much less overhead for the Taft private provider, suggesting that the government could save a great deal of money by privatizing prisons. The assumptions underlying the BOP analysis were different, however, and led to a less sanguine conclusion.
http://www.nij.gov/journals/259/prison-privatization.htm

_______________________________
Abstract:
The need to reduce the costs of incarceration to state and federal correctional agencies has
allowed the movement to privatize correctional institutions to gain considerable momentum.
The empirical evidence regarding whether private prisons are more cost-effective than
public institutions, however, is inconclusive.
http://archive.epinet.org/real_media/010111/materials/TravisPratt.pdf
We spend lifetimes developing community assets, then give them away to a corporation for lifetimes to come

A grand delusion has been planted in the minds of Americans, that privately run systems are more efficient and less costly than those in the public sector. Most of the evidence points the other way. Private initiatives generally produce mediocre or substandard results while experiencing the usual travails of unregulated capitalism â higher prices, limited services, and lower wages for all but a few âentrepreneurs.â
http://www.salon.com/topic/privatization_2/

Saturday May 18, 2013, 12:50 am
This is capitalism at its ugliest. Society does have to pay to lock certain people up, but why should we pay a bunch of parasites on top of that? It's too bad that anyone invests in this deplorable system. Thanks, Dandelion.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 1:23 am
According to Henri Wedell:
America is the freest country in the world, he told me. America allows more freedom than any other country in the world, much more than Russia and a whole lot more than Scandinavia, where they really arent free. So offering all this freedom to society, therell be a certain number of people, more in this country than elsewhere, who take advantage of that freedom, abuse it, and end up in prison. That happens because we are so free in this country.

There is a sliver of truth about Scandinavians not being so free:We are not allowed to carry consealed weapons and we don't have any "Stand your ground" law.

Apart from that,capitalists will always try to make money wherever they can - Business as usual.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 4:36 am
I wonder how much they paid the government under the table in order to take over those prisons. It always comes down to greed, money and corruption. We do not only have to suffer the consequences, but we are also made to pay for it.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 6:37 am
Thank you JL A for the additional information, this is another area that the people really need to understand and your additional information can offer some referance points.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 6:42 am
This is another reason why the housing of the mentally challenged is now being done more and more by the correctional facilities. Most can't pay for treatment; are homeless and cause problems for society that society doesn't want to deal with. I'm surprised they haven't opened the FEMA prison camps yet. Hey what about sticking all those illegal aliens in them? Wow, what a great idea.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 7:01 am
Henri Wedell: "...America allows a lot more freedom than Scandinavia..."
-Well, I wonder if that stinking rich bastard has ever been to Scandinavia...???
("Presumably, when hes referring to all the freedom Americans have, hes not including the 80,000 inmates in 60 prisons...")

Saturday May 18, 2013, 8:54 am
Sometimes being poor enough to have no 401k is a blessing! Between the profiteers in the penal system and the private militia that we seldom hear about, both have scandalously made fortunes while lessening the regulations and created misery for so many others.
Thanks for hanging the mirror - and letting us know that we are all responsible for the actions that we don't think about - out of sight-out of mind!
Thanks also to your analysis JL A - good research!

Saturday May 18, 2013, 9:55 am
why don't we put in jail everyone who makes too much money off the rest of us and use that money for our homeless and innocent people who had no money to defnd themselves????

Saturday May 18, 2013, 12:02 pm
I have yet to find any public function which has been privatized to the benefit of the taxpayers. The commons should be perpetually a public function. Privatization ALWAYS leads to higher costs and lower service. You can't take a non profit function, make it a for profit one and expect better outcomes unless your brain doesn't function.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 1:15 pm
I had no idea that there was any gain to anyone in the prison system. Unfortunate that companies like Fidelity have a part of the equation. Something just not right about this picture! Tax dollars for private corrections?! Thanks for posting.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 1:54 pm
Noted w/thanks, Dandelion.
With the stock market at an all time high, this would be a great time for groups to divest from these private prisons. Our own Gov. got in some hot water when she started pushing for building more CCA prisons in AZ. Then some violent criminals broke out of one of those already-built prisons and went on a murder spree. We've also had some on-the-ground protests against private prisons here. We need more of those protests around America. I hope a huge "divestment campaign" takes off. It seems that's the best way to fight them.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 4:38 pm
Noted. Actually, I didn't know that America had more in prison than China and Russia. Oy! A friend in law enforcement believes that cutting down some of our population would happen with changing drug sentencing, for one. As for our freedom? Indeed. One thing about freedom is that it can - and is - abused. I just hope that those corporations aren't in the 1%...that would be too sorry....

Saturday May 18, 2013, 5:07 pm
When we lock people us to make a "Profit" they will make sure the beds remain full. It doesn't take much to put someone behind bars when Judges get kickbacks and I've read those stories, when guards trip prisoners up to add length to their sentences. Remember, one doesn't make money if the bed isn't occupied.

We must question this as our numbers are increasing more than any other Nation on Earth since our prisons became a money maker for some people.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 5:35 pm
This is one nasty pill to swallow. You have the right of it, Sheryl. These men are parasites of the worst kind and people should really be paying attention to their stock portfolios if and when it is possible. Money is one evil bitch.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 6:27 pm
Please read the article, we would do better if the prisons were with the State, not with private for Profit Greedy Ones. Question why we have the largest prison population over China and Russia. China with their billions of population. Something smells bad that we have more humans in cages, behind bars, than China or Russia......and numbers rising since it become For Profit to put people in cages.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 6:40 pm
Indeed Bill & Katie. Why pay someone even minimum wage if you can have them doing the work for free or at 40 cents an hour. Many of the reservations that are taken for trips over the phone are done by prisoners, I've read of fish being raised to sell on the markets, and a host of other things. This is a very sinister system we have and few look at it because most people assume those who are behind bars deserve it. Do they all? Why are our numbers larger than any other Country?

Saturday May 18, 2013, 8:36 pm
Modern slavery, keeping (mostly) minorities under permanent supervision, keeping citizens afraid and docile ... pick any one Dandelion and I am sure that you can add a few to that list.

I forgot the place and names, but about a year ago I read about a lucrative business liaison between one judge and an owner of a private prison. Judge made sure that juveniles which get in his courtroom get the maximal punishment and delivered them to his business partner. It was going on for several years before an investigation was opened, and I think that last year the case was finally brought to a trial. I wish I can recall more details about it, but I will definitely do some google.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 9:34 pm
Noted and shared on FAcebook. Thanks, Sheryl. This makes me ill. I have a nephew who got in jail for drugs about ten years ago. We had to "buy" clean underwear for him from the jail, "buy" any food items other than what they provided, which was very little, "buy" phone time so he could call his attorney. He was there 90 days and slept on a concrete slab the entire time. We were treated like suspects when we came to visit him. This experience taught him that he never wanted to be in jail again, but it was an eye opener for us. I am in despair most of the time over what has happened to our country. Everything seems to be for sale.

Saturday May 18, 2013, 9:48 pm
The politics of the U.S Government never ceases to annoy me.
The lack of security among the mass of inmates at Penal Institutions
have caused deaths in the "General Public" areas.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 8:12 am
This is capitalism "...at its worst," indeed, married to racism in such a way that it perpetuates poverty and hopelessness. Then the racists point to the poor and say "See, they don't want to join the greater society, after all." The parasites point to the victims and call them parasites.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 9:47 am
Stars all over the place - but I couldn't to Dandelion, JLA or Lee or Robert K as I had already given them stars today - sorry! The comments were utterly superb and I couldn't better them - but my goodness I desperately agree with them! Once you start having private prisons corruption goes hand in hand with it, justice can be for sale and God help us all!!!

Sunday May 19, 2013, 3:56 pm
Like Terrie, I would rather be living in Scandinavia (I think Denmark would be my choice) but I am already too long a driving distance from my husband who is in a privately owned prison (yes, Lois, owned by CCA). Robert K, you are singing my song - why is it not obvious to everyone?

Perhaps people interested in this would be interested in another prison related article at
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/massachusetts-elderly-prisoners-cost-compassionate-release.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 4:13 pm
This is a shocker and now I'm depressed along with angry, as I'm a teacher in TX with a 403B and contribute to TRS...so I'm complicit in investing in these wretched corporations. I need to see what my course of action is now. Thanks for posting, Dandelion!

Sunday May 19, 2013, 4:25 pm
The Prison Industrial System is of course mired in racism (if you haven't already, read Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow"). And the justice system is in bed with these greedy corporations who can only turn a big profit if all their beds are filled--so the judges abide and everyone's happy! Right?
Except for the human beings who are treated like unwanted animals, languishing in prison--not getting rehabilitative help or being able to better themselves (like it was in the old days). Make me want to move Joanne and Terri...

Sunday May 19, 2013, 4:30 pm
Noted, tweeted, shared, tweeted, shared. Interesting article. I knew most prison were privately owned, but I didn't know who did the owning. I was amazing to realize I was one of the owners since I am a retired teacher in MO. We have one of the best pension plans in the nation. I am sure some of our money is invested in prisons if it is profitable.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 4:49 pm
I mentioned earlier that it's never a good idea to privatize a government function, and upon further reflection I thought of AGFA film. It was seized by the government during WWII as a Nazi owned company and was run profitably for decades before it was sold off. That being said, and thinking about the TVA, the best run energy supplier (that may have changed since anti government forces have seized power in the South) in the country, perhaps we should instead be thinking about turning private corporations into publicly owned ones. The multi million dollar paydays gone, the lobbyists shipped off to Hell where they belong, the ptofits used to buy politicians gone. Might that not be a better idea?

No, I don't ACTUALLY want communism, but I do want to see corporations reined in brutally to the point where anything they do that negatively affects the little guy results in certain prison and forfeiture of all holdings by their executives and boards. There shouls be a maximum wage of no more than 30 times what the lowest paid worker gets except when you actually invent and market that product.

When corporations were first allowed they were required to put the consumer ahead of profit and lobbying was illegal. That should be the law of the land again.

The United States leads the world in incarceration, with more than 2.2 million people in its prisons and jails, and the graying of this population is shaping up to be a crisis with moral, practical, and economic implications for cash-strapped governments.

"The mass incarceration of the elderly is an example of our criminal justice system at its most heartless and its most irrational," says David Fathi, director of the ACLU's National Prison Project. "Most such prisoners are long past their crime-prone years and pose little to no public safety risk."

Sunday May 19, 2013, 6:37 pm
Yesterday I have promised to google about corruption on juvenile court. Actually, there's lot about this case on Google Search!

Wikipedia: Kids for cash scandal:
"The "Kids for cash" scandal unfolded in 2008 over judicial kickbacks at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two judges, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan, were accused of accepting money from Robert Mericle, builder of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities, in return for contracting with the facilities and imposing harsh sentences on juveniles brought before their courts to increase the number of inmates in the detention centers. ..."

Judge Receives Over 17 Year Sentence For Role In Cash For Kids Private Prisons Scandal; Think Progress; Sep 28, 2011.:
"Former Pennsylvania state judge Michael Conahan was sentenced last Friday to 210 months in prison for his involvement in a scandal to enrich private prison corporations by sentencing juvenile pranksters and other extremely minor offenders to be incarcerated in a corporate-run facility. ..."

Corrupt Juvenile Justice Leaves Mark On Pa. Kids; Here&Now; January 15, 2013:
"Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Ecenbarger tells a story that seems to be pulled right from Charles Dickens: a judge sends young people to a detention center, in exchange for kickbacks from the facilitys owner. ..."

Note: there is an excerpt from the Ecenbarger's book Kids for Cash posted on Here&Now. It is too long to copy it here, yet it is well written eye-opener and it is worth to take some time to read it.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 7:01 pm
Jelica, thanks for finding this for I too recalled the story when you mentioned it earlier on the thread.

Why do people think this "For Profit" Prison system is going to be any better than what we've seen in other areas of "For Profit"

Like our Health Care system that is based on Profit, which is neither healthy nor caring.

How about the Big Oil Industry, that rakes in big profits while at the same time cutting corners that have led to environmental disasters, workers killed, and they show no sign of caring about anything as long as the profit sheet looks good.

The list grows ever longer on the For Profit messes that we have, why would think that this would be better. In fact, as most people assume that people in prison are the low life of society, they pay little attention as to who is behind bars or why they are behind bars. In fact, it takes little to trip one up today to end up behind the prison walls.

No matter why these people are behind bars, we as a society show our character at how we do treat other human beings even if they do mess up. With For Profit jails and prisons that don't make money unless a bed is filled may be a very minor thing that could end up with a long time of misery.

I am also not liking this trend of putting children behind bars in adult prisons and sentencing them to life without parole. Many times these children are either set up, have been seriously abused, or framed for crimes they in fact had no part of or limited part in. You mean to tell me there is no redemption for a 12 and 13 year old child? No, I don't like this at all.....

Sunday May 19, 2013, 7:29 pm
I hope not Shirley, and nothing has to happen, but when a public isn't paying attention, when things are signed in and done behind our backs, in the dead of the night, when their is no discussion of things pro and con, then we have this Privitize Everything being crammed down our throats. This needs to be turned around, that is all I want to see happen. Stop this insanity!

Sunday May 19, 2013, 7:47 pm
It's disgusting to read how these people are profiting from people who are placed in prison. May they rot in hell for their insane thoughts. I pray for a way to take care of this matter to help the innocent, Thanks Dandelion

Sunday May 19, 2013, 8:19 pm
We had a big "for profit prisons" PR campaign in Croatia, only we call it "public-private partnership". Basically, public will build prisons and pay a private company for operating it. Although, Government is silent now since the biggest proponent of this pillaging scheme resigned from his position in cabinet after (hold your hat!) he has been sentenced to 22 months due to a traffic accident in Hungary in which two people died.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 8:19 pm
In tge TV show Supernatural people maake a deal with the Devil and have 10 years of great success after which time they are ripped to shreda by Hellhounds and their souls claimed by Satan.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if that happened to corrupt corporate executives and the politicians they buy?

Pretty soon no more corrupt Democrats and no more Republican party at all.

Sunday May 19, 2013, 10:33 pm
Again it it the citizens who want this. They want ridiculous sentences people don't really care if they are guilty or innocent just jail them and throw away the key.. many laws are just plum dumb. But most people do not know the law and assume that it is fair. But it is not. The sentencing some time long for what really is a minor offense and here at this we have people clamoring for others to get felonies for what is a citation offense. I see that there is a mob mentality that is like cheering for the lions at the coliseum. Then you point out that we are destroying our world.

Tuesday May 21, 2013, 7:56 pm
Green stars all around..it would take an hour to send to all who deserve them!
Id like to know more..who is spaying who for each person locked up? (I am not very business savvy, so..)

Is this why the repigs wanted to privatize Social Security?

the war on drugs is a joke but hey, people are getting rich..until they crash the stock market again, and we 99% pay the price again *sigh*

Wednesday May 22, 2013, 2:27 am
This makes me sick. Damn...Congress won't be happy until they privatize social security and medicare too. It works out great for the rich elite because if they want clean up the books all the poor sap teachers across the country can have their retirement wiped out. Talk about a conflict of interest. There is absolutely no incentive to reduce the prison population. Add to that those who think the bad guys are being kept off the streets and it is a perfect formula for screwing the American taxpayer. Noted and Signed TY Dandelion

Friday June 7, 2013, 1:11 pm
Much more about this needs to become transparent... About 20 yr's ago while in a waiting room I picked up a copy of The Wall Street Journal and read an article on the front page that dealt with privetly owned Prisons being the next big business enterprise in America...... and I remember thinking "oh no...." Scary actually....

Friday June 7, 2013, 1:20 pm
Remember also, they don't make money unless beds are filled, so it is made more easy to end up in those beds. People that can't find work, end up in debt, now are being sent to prison for this. More and more laws to trip one up, simple things can escalate into a sentence behind bars. Judges getting kick backs to make sure juveniles end up behind bars rather than community service, the list is endless on how to fill those beds.